This song was written as part of a work-in-progress musical about the House Un-American Activies Committee — and a musical that I never intend to finish — titled Are You Now, or Have You Ever Been…Blue?
This particular bit of that tilting at windwills is a Schoolhouse Rock-type example of mnemonic education: a song that promises to teach you the names of the Hollywood 10, a group of screenwriters and directors who were called to testifiy in 1947 before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). They were writers, so they had some good lines.
Their names were:
- Alvah Bessie
- Herbert J. Biberman
- Lester Cole
- Edward Dmytryk
- Ring Lardner Jr.
- John Howard Lawson
- Albert Maltz
- Samuel Ornitz
- Adrian Scott
- Dalton Trumbo
BONUS: Bertolt Brecht
The song was first debuted in Accokeek, Maryland, but for reference, here’s a lively if loose live version recorded in the beer garden of Mike n’ Molly’s in Champaign, Illinois, in August of 2009. This version is arranged to within an inch of its life and just barely gets out of there alive.
The Viper & His Famous Orchestra 